Just Older
by suitsfan
Summary: Harvey Specter doesn't do birthdays. Until he does. (M/H slash)


Haven't written anything in years (literally), but wrote this for a friend's birthday. I'm very, _very_ rusty so be gentle. Please.

* * *

"I'll need you to get that back to me no later than 5 o'clock today because I have the deposition in the morning and I need-"

"I know, Harvey. You told me. More than once even."

"That's because I want to make sure the information fully penetrates that thick skull of yours. Now if we're done here, I'd like to be able to get back to my work," Harvey replies, turning his attention back down to the laptop in front of him.

Mike doesn't leave, just stands there and waits for Harvey to look back up at him.

"What are you waiting for?" Harvey finally asks.

"This Saturday," Mike says, like it's an explanation in itself.

"What about it?"

"It's your birthday!"

"Mike.." Harvey starts, already sounding a little exasperated. "Whatever it is you're going to say next? Just don't."

"Come on, Harvey. You're going to be the big.." Mike pauses before bringing his voice down to a whisper "4-0."

"Don't whisper like that. It's creepy."

"Well then just give me a headcount of how many people I should invite, and what kind of cake you want and I'll take care of the rest."

"There's nothing to take care of. The headcount is zero, and I don't want cake. Now go away."

"Don't want cake? That pretty much confirms what I've known all along, you are definitely _not_ human."

"Look, I don't do birthdays."

"You don't do birthdays? What does that even mean? You can't just _not_ have a birthday. It's not a choice you get to make."

"And yet, here we are, with me choosing to not have one. Now drop it already and scram."

"Harvey-"

"I'm serious. Get your ass back to work or I'm going to grant myself a birthday wish in advance and fire you."

"But wait, wouldn't that go against your not doing birthday's policy?"

Harvey shoots Mike a look. Mike knows that look all too well.

"All right, fine. I'm going," he resigns.

Harvey knew Mike wasn't going to let it go that easily, so he opts to bury him with more work than he's ever given him the entire time he's worked at the firm. He even decides to enlist the help of Louis. For the greater good, of course. With the work load Mike now has on his plate, Harvey figures he'll barely have time to sleep, let alone even remember anything about a birthday.

And by the time Friday rolls around, sure enough Mike looks completely and utterly spent. Harvey tosses a few more things his way before heading home from the office and adds in a threat about firing him if he doesn't get it done. He's pretty sure Mike knows by now that a threat like that is ultimately empty, but he also knows that Mike will always work like it isn't.

Harvey heads into the office on Saturday morning and gets a jump start on the things that would have been waiting there for him to do on Monday morning. It wasn't anything important, or anything that couldn't wait, he just wanted the distraction. And the distraction works well, be cause he doesn't even look up once from his work until his cell phone rings in his pocket.

"Hello?" he answers.

"Two things," the voice on the other end of the line says. "One; why are you at the office on a Saturday? And two; do you want a custom plate when I put in the order for your Hoverround?"

Harvey rolls his eyes, and he's pretty sure Donna can hear it on the other end of the line. "I'm turning 40, not 90, Donna," he remarks.

"My mistake. It's just sometimes with how grouchy you are, it's hard to know the difference. Also, you didn't answer the first question."

"I'm here to work, which is usually what you go to your place of employment to do. Did I miss the memo that it's suddenly a crime to do that now? Because if I did, that's on you, as you're in charge of giving me my memos."

"It _should_ be one. But I don't make the laws. Not yet, anyway. Look Harvey, I know you don't want a party or anything like that, but the least you could do is not punish yourself by being at the office on a Saturday of all days."

Harvey sighs. He knows it's not a fight he's going to win. "Fine. Once I finish up on this I'll leave."

"Good. Also just to be clear, that isn't a request."

"Believe me, I know."

"Also Harvey, there's a bag on my desk. Grab it on your way out."

"Scotch?"

"That's the tradition."

"But wait, how did you even know I was going to come here in the first place?"

"You're welcome. Happy birthday, Harvey!" Donna adds, before hanging up the phone.

A smile tugs at the corners of Harvey's mouth and he stretches back in his chair, Donna never ceases to amaze him.

He then turns his focus back to the paperwork in front of him, eager to get it wrapped up as quickly as possible, if only for the fact that he's pretty sure Donna would send a rescue team for him it he didn't follow through with his promise of leaving.

Once Harvey is done at the office he uses the rest of the afternoon to run errands that he's been neglecting, or ones that he normally pays somebody else to do for him. By the time he gets back to his condo, he's feeling exhausted.

He kicks off his shoes and throws himself onto the couch. He turns the tv on and flips through the channels before deciding to leave it on Sports Center, which ends up being all for naught anyway, as he's fast asleep within twenty minutes of doing so.

He wakes up to the warmth on his face from the evening sun setting outside his windows. He waits for the world to come back into focus a bit before reaching into his pocket and checking his phone. He checks the time, and can't believe he slept as long as he did. He also can't believe there's not a single message from Mike. I mean, he did give him all that work to do, but it only takes 5 seconds to send a text. Or call. Not that he wanted him to. He just kind of _expected_ Mike to defy the 'no birthday' thing.

Maybe something was wrong with Mike. Maybe he should call and make sure he was okay. No. Harvey shook the thought immediately, realizing how incredibly ridiculous it all sounded. Mike had simply done exactly what he had asked of him. It's a rarity, but certainly not cause for alarm.

Harvey drags himself from the couch and heads into the bathroom for a shower.

When he emerges from the bathroom, he's wearing a light grey v-neck shirt clinging to his still slightly damp skin, and a pair of long black pants on. He doesn't have any plans to go anywhere, so he might as well dress as comfortably as possible. He has a towel still in his hand and he runs it through his hair a few times, which causes his hair to stick up every which way.

He lays the towel down on the kitchen counter top as he makes his way to the cupboard to retrieve a glass, but before he can do that there's a knock at the door. Harvey furrows his brow in confusion before heading to answer it.

When he opens it Mike is standing on the other side.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was in the area, and thought you might be hungry, so I brought food."

"You were in the area?" Harvey asks incredulously.

"Well, I mean, I was once I purposely came here."

Harvey shakes his head and smiles before inviting Mike inside. Harvey shuts the door behind them and follows him down the hallway and into the kitchen where Mike is starting to place down the things he'd been carrying, and sighing with relief.

"What is all this stuff?"

"Just dinner. And dessert. Mind if I borrow some space in your freezer?"

Harvey gives the go ahead and Mike sticks the brown bag into it. After he's done with that he heads back over and reaches into the other brown bag he has, pulling out a box and sticking it on the counter.

"You can't be serious with that?"

"What? It's wine!"

"It's in a box!" Harvey exclaims like it's something that isn't entirely obvious.

"I kind of left my wallet in the cab, and there wasn't much of a choice anyway, and I, just..ya know, it's a long story that I'm sure you don't want to hear about anyway."

"You would be right about that."

"So..pizza?" Mike offers opening the box.

"I'll grab some plates."

Mike serves both Harvey and then himself, and then suggests they watch a movie together, Harvey is happy to oblige, although he's sure to make Mike feel like he has to twist his arm to get him to agree to it.

"Want some wine?" Mike asks in the middle of the movie.

"That shit you brought? No thanks. I do have _actual _wine though, we can have a glass of that if you'd like instead."

"Come on, Harvey. You can drink that expensive shit any day of the week. Just have a glass of the kind I brought with me. Please?"

Mike and the word please was practically Harvey's kryptonite. "Fine, let's do it."

Mike claps his hands together in celebration and then jumps up and dashes out to the kitchen. He fills two glasses, and brings them back.

"Here you go," he says handing Harvey his.

"Cheers?"

"Cheers," Harvey says, clinking his glass with Mike's.

Harvey takes a drink from his glass. "Jesus, this is horrible," he says, his face contorting with disgust.

"It's not _that_ bad," Mike says, already taking a second sip.

"It tastes like cleaning supplies. Actually, I take that back, I think I'm going to go drink some of my cleaning supplies to get this taste out of my mouth."

Mike laughs at that. "You're just spoiled."

"If not drinking this constitutes as spoiled? Guilty as charged."

"Just shut up and drink."

Despite Harvey's complaints, he does continue to drink it. By the time the movie ends, they've both got a pretty good buzz going on.

"The second one is still better," Harvey states after switching off the movie while the credits roll.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that. You can't go against the original. You just _can't_."

"Don't get me wrong, the first Back To The Future is a masterpiece, but there's more time travel in the second, and you can't go wrong with more time travel. Ever. It's just a lot more fun."

"I think the wine has definitely gone to your brain, because you're talking nonsense right now."

"Speaking of that, mind pouring me another glass?"

"Thought you hated it?" Mike asked as he grabbed Harvey's glass to refill it.

"I do." Harvey takes the glass from Mike's hand and takes a large gulp before sitting the glass down on the coffee table and allowing himself to sink down into the couch with an audible sigh. Mike follows suit, taking a drink of his own glass before sitting it down and sinking down next to Harvey.

There's a silence in the air, that they both let linger for awhile.

Harvey finally breaks the silence. "Thank you."

"For?"

"This. Being here. I know it was wrong of me to give you all that work, just because I have issues with my birthday."

"It's okay. I know." Mike says comfortingly as he reaches over and pats Harvey's thigh reassuringly. "We don't have to talk about if you don't want."

"Talk about what?"

"You know, the traumatic experience you had with clowns when you were little that made you hate birthdays."

"You're an idiot," Harvey replies, unable to suppress his laughter, which in turn makes Mike laugh hard.

When they both collect themselves, Mike disappears momentarily, coming back with a box in hand. He sits it down in front of Harvey.

"You got me an ice cream cake? How'd-"

"I know it was your favorite? I Google'd it."

"Donna?"

"Isn't that what I said?"

"Touche. I'll go grab us some plates."

"We don't need them. I brought us forks, we can just eat it out of the box."

"Were you raised in a barn?"

"Maybe," Mike says, holding out a fork.

"Fine. Screw it," Harvey says as he accepts the fork from Mike and they both dig into the cake.

It's after two in the morning when the second movie finishes playing. They've polished off the cake and have drank more wine than they probably should have.

"I should probably get going. It's late," Mike says, looking down at his watch for the first time since arriving at Harvey's.

"Just stay the night."

Mike laughs at that, before realizing Harvey is being entirely serious.

"I wouldn't want to impose."

"Really? And here I thought imposing was kind of your thing," Harvey joked.

"Ha. Ha."

"Just stay, okay?"

"Yeah..okay. I'll stay. But we should probably start cleaning up this mess so we can get some- sle-"

Before Mike can finish his sentence, Harvey kisses him. His kiss is hard and demanding, but with an underlying softness and emotion to it, perhaps the very definition of Harvey Specter himself. He kisses Mike like he's some beautiful memory he once had, and lost and is now desperate to recover.

Mike feels like he's been perpetually reeling for as long as he can remember, but in this moment, with Harvey in control of his mouth, he feels stilled. And in being kissed breathless he feels like he can finally breathe again.

"That counts as your present," are the first words out of Mike's mouth when they finally break apart. Harvey kisses Mike again, and Mike can feel him smiling into the kiss.

"I'd like to end my birthday on this high note, so want to move this to the bedroom?"

"Harvey, I-"

"Just for sleep," Harvey clarifies. It's not that Harvey doesn't want to have sex with Mike either, but he'd waited forever just to make a move and _kiss _him, and now that he has, he wants to do things right. He wants to take him on dates, he wants to feel like he full deserves Mike and has earned the right to be with him. Harvey knows Mike is truly exceptional and unlike anybody he ever has, or ever will meet.

"Wait a second. You're letting me sleep in _your_ bedroom? You mean you're not going to make me sleep on the sofa?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Why would I make you sleep on the sofa, when there's plenty of room at the foot of my bed?"

"Like a puppy?"

"Exactly," Harvey says with a laugh.

Mike laughs too, and then closes in on Harvey and kisses him. Slowly and with reverence, savoring every bit of it, and he could feel Harvey doing the same. If Mike had known this is what pizza, cake, and cheap wine could get him, he would have done it sooner.

Harvey and Mike eventually make their way to the bedroom, where Harvey loans Mike one of his old Harvard shirts to sleep in. They lay there for a long while talking about everything and nothing at all.

Harvey's still talking when he hears Mike's breathing get heavier, so he looks over, and sure enough Mike has fallen asleep. He wonders how that's even possible between the conversation and the sound of Harvey's heart beating against his chest, threatening to jump up out of it at any given moment. He adjusts Mike's covers, softly kisses him on the forehead, and whispers a final 'thank you' before succumbing to sleep himself.

Best. Birthday. Ever.


End file.
